MMBN10: Vine and Storm
by OmgIsuckalot
Summary: The tenth installment of the MegaMan Battle Network Series! In this installment, a "virus" who claims to be 'Vine' is terrorizing the net, while the Neo Nebula tries to get their hands on the 'Storm' program. It's up to Lan and MegaMan to stop both sides!
1. Prologue

Hellos there! I'm writing a MegaMan fanfiction, just because I want to! Hahahah . . . okay let's begin.

No wait, before I start, I just want to say that I only have this chapter up because I wanted a prologue, or else I would've just started chapter one. And also, my words are very noobish. I use words like 'said' and 'shouted.' Now that that's cleared up, let's begin . . .

Wait, no I have something else to clear up. The DiVine's Triumph is the chapter title (underlined) because this prologue takes place about a year after chapter one should start. The title number/prologue/epilogue is always bolded, and the fanfiction title is always italicized.

Okay, NOW let's begin . . . after the disclaimer.

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't MegaMan, RockMan, or HuMan.

* * *

**Prologue**

_MMBN10: Vine and Storm_

The DiVine's Triumph

* * *

It was bright and sunny outdoors at Cyber City. Not even the thick, wooden blinds could stop the sunlight from shining in onto the sleeping Lan's face. His eyelids started to 'shudder' as if they were thinking they were human.

The eyelids opened up, revealing a pair of dreamy brown eyes. The eyelids quickly shut as it absorbed the blinding sunlight, but quickly opened up again to check the time: Five o' clock sharp.

* * *

About a year later . . . (and a 'world' away)

A loud thud and dust spread as the large crate was dropped onto the CyberShip. The muscular Navi that performed this action was none other than MetalMan. He stretched his arms out and his back made a cracking sound. His back was hurting from loading on at least 200 500-lb crates full of who-knows-what.

MetalMan, who was still busy stretching, toppled over and landed on his back on the ship's wooden floors. The tiny quakes that KnightMan created while he walked (in his language; for others, it's stomped) caused MetalMan—who was getting back up—to fall over again.

KnightMan dropped the crate onto the ship's deck and swiftly apologized to MetalMan, while he 'walked' back onto the CyberDocks to continue loading up the crates. MetalMan quickly sighed, and also resumed working.

JunkMan (AN: Zombie Navi; will reveal in later chapters) "stood" there on the CyberDock, concentrating his mind on the heavy crates and focusing his eyes onto them. His eyes glowed a brighter gold, and the crates slowly rose up into the air—levitation, or Poltergeist.

Junkman's hand pincers were guides to direct the levitating crates onto the transport ship. Real 'ghost' poltergeists weren't exactly summoned. It was just JunkMan's ability to lift up objects using his mind and 'hands.'

The three Navis would make the mission a breeze, even if it would take a few hours to complete. A rough estimation from JunkMan was created; that there were only a few hundred more crates to load.

The director of the crew, a NormalNavi named Eska, briskly walked off the ship towards KnightMan, who was busy grunting to pick up a crate. "Great job, KnightMan. This mission would've taken at least three times as long without you here."

KnightMan picked up a crate, and responded, "No problem. Always glad to help and serve under the Princess's commands." Eska slapped KnightMan on his hard, rusty back and went back to work. KnightMan nearly dropped his crate upon the contact of Eska's slap.

'_Man, I might have to get repairs soon,'_ KnightMan thought.

MetalMan fell down on his butt after loading on one more crate. "Damn it," he said to JunkMan.

_"Lucky,_ that you can use your poltergeists to do all the work for you."

JunkMan ignored his statement. After loading on another crate, was when he finally replied, "It takes a lot of work to do this. My mind really hurts after this if I use this several times." The way he spoke was dark and deep, and had a slight echo to it as if he was talking in an empty steel room.

MetalMan sighed, and lifted up another crate. "How much are we getting paid, anyway?"

The answer was quite expected, but not appreciated. "We're not."

". . . Then why are we working?"

". . . For the service hours?"

MetalMan sighed again, and proceeded to load the crate onto the ship. As he took a step on the ship, he heard a creek, coming from his knee. He bent down and examined both of his knees, and they were a little brownish.

"Tamako!" MetalMan exclaimed to his operator. No response. "Tamako!" he shouted again. Still no response. "HEY! TAMAKO!" Again, no response. "DAMN IT! SAY SOMETHING YOU OLD HAG!"

MetalMan's eardrums would never hear anything the same way again.

"WHAT'D YOU SAY!?" Tamako _shrieked_ at MetalMan. "YOU'RE CALLING ME AN OLD HAG? LOOK AT YOUR DAMN BODY, IT'S FREAKING RUSTING UP!!"

MetalMan twitched. "Oh god, that was the reason why I was—I . . . you know what? Never mind that I ever asked for you." He sighed another time, and went back down to pick up a crate.

Tamako 'psh-ed' at MetalMan and lay back in her chair where she was operating from. "Now then, if you'll excuse me . . . I'm going back to my beauty sleep."

"All sleeping's going to do is _further_ ruin your complexion," MetalMan whispered, which lucky for him: Tamako didn't hear.

* * *

Moments later . . .

MetalMan fell down on his butt, and let out a sigh of relief. "Finally, we're finished." Then he fell onto his back. "But now I'm so bored!"

"It hasn't even been a second yet," KnightMan stated.

"Whatever,"

JunkMan crouched his head down; his yellow dot eyes turned black, and he drifted off to sleep. But then his eyes turned back on, and he immediately rose up and got into a defensive pose. "Viruses," he whispered.

And MetalMan immediately stood up on his feet. "The boredom suddenly went away." He looked off into the distance, focusing his eyes on the small moving dots that were coming closer every second. Up in the sky, a flock of small, bird-like viruses were flapping their wings and flying towards the CyberDocks.

The flock had a variety of birds. The ones that were smaller were the majority, and had blue feathers and had a 2 inch long beak, were about an 8-inch wingspan. The ones that were larger had purple feathers with the same beak length as the smaller ones, except with a foot long wingspan. The most noticeable similarity, however, is the fact that they all wore goggles, and that their squawks had the same annoyance level as an Asian parent after figuring out their child got below an 89 on a quiz.

"I spy with my little eyes . . . about twenty birds," MetalMan stated. "TAMAKO! WAKE UP! VIRUSES!!"

Tamako immediately jumped out of the chair she was sleeping on and held her PET firmly. "Finally, something to do." She gave a smirk.

KnightMan called his own operator, Princess Pride, who quickly examined the incoming bird-viruses, and after some time, she recognized them. "Beat viruses!" she exclaimed (AN: Yeah, I based the virus off the annoying NaviCust program: Beat)

"From this distance," KnightMan started, "I think I'm the only one that can reach them. KINGDOM CRUSHER!" His right hand transformed into a huge spiked ball, and he aimed at the birds with his right arm, as if it was a gun. The spiked ball that he had for a hand burst out of the arm with tons of speed, although it was still attached to the arm via chain.

The flock of birds easily dodged the incoming attack, but 3 of them were deleted anyway, because the spiked ball crashed through the flock as the chain was pulling it back to KnightMan.

"I got a few," KnightMan said. "Better than nothing."

"Hmm . . ." JunkMan thought. "It's going after the ship. Beat viruses always love to steal things. And that ship is hella full of things."

The Beat viruses completely ignored the three Navis, and instead dove for the ship, sticking out their talons, ready to grab random crates.

Suddenly, Eska, the mission director, leapt up from behind a crate, and spoke in a heroic tone, "Hah! You've been fooled! Now taste the wraths of my WideSword!" Eska's right hand turned into a wide, blue virtual blade.

He smirked because he knew that this time he WAS going to save the day. His smirk disappeared soon, because a purple Beat flew with lightning speed towards the NormalNavi, and grabbed the WideSword with its talons and snapped it.

Eska lay shocked, but only for a few seconds, because three blue Beats soon rammed him in the stomach. He tumbled off the ship and landed on his back onto the virtual wooden planks that made up the CyberDocks.

"I find it weird that this guy can direct a mission," MetalMan said, and pitifully looked at the fainted Eska. "Let's show this dude how to _correctly_ bust viruses. Tamako!"

"Yeah, yeah," Tamako said, grabbing random chips from her chip case. "So if these pigeons are Wind element, then we can delete them quickly with swords! Battle chip: CrushSword, Slot-in!" (AN: Yeah, the way things work is based on the Japanese version)

MetalMan's right fist disappeared, and was replaced by a hole. A blade emerged from the hole, yielding both Breaking and Sword elements. The blade was thick and looked like it could easily cut a mountain in half. "CRUSHSWORD!" he yelled, and swung at the Beat viruses, which saw it coming and evaded the blade by a hair.

"KnightMan! I'm sending you chip data now!" Pride stated, and drew out a WindRacket chip. "Battle chip: Wind Racket, Slot-in!" KnightMan's spiked ball transformed into a hand again, which was holding a paper fan.

He swiped the air with this fan, and wind suddenly erupted from out of nowhere, blowing the Beat viruses toward MetalMan, who gave a battle cry and deleted five of the blue feathered viruses. The purple ones easily resisted the wind from the racket.

The remaining Beats then sank their talons into the huge wooden crate, and started to fly up away, towards the north (AN: Bear with me when I'm using directions), carrying the heavy crates with them.

"Pretty tough for a bunch of birds," MetalMan stated.

"Poltergeist," JunkMan whispered in his spooky voice, and the crates that the Beats were carrying flipped over, bringing the Beat viruses with them. The viruses immediately let go of the crates, and started to fly off.

"Not so fast!" MetalMan shouted, and cut up the remaining of the birds with his gigantic sword.

"Don't let the crates fall in the water!" KnightMan shouted.

"I know!" JunkMan shouted back, and used most of his power to psychically pick up the crates and place them safely back on the ship. When they landed, JunkMan put his head down, and started panting heavily. It's not easy controlling that many crates. "Is that it?"

"There's one more," KnightMan said, pointing to the south, the opposite direction that the other birds were going. There was a blue Beat, flying swiftly away, holding a crate by his talons. "Damn it. Our mission was to make sure all crates got safely on the boat. And that Beat is already too far away. We've failed." KnightMan fell onto his knees. "I'm sorry, Princess, for failing the mission."

"It's okay, KnightMan. You only let _one_ crate get stolen. Stop being so hard on yourself," the Princess said, trying to cheer him up.

"Yeah," MetalMan said. "Besides, we can still get that crate back. Right, Tamako?"

"You bet!" she grinned, and snatched three chips from her chip case. "Program Advance: Battle chip: Yoyo, triple slot-in!"

As soon as the first Yoyo chip was inserted, MetalMan's CrushSword transformed into a bladed yoyo. When the second one was inserted, his left hand transformed into a yoyo. As the third one was inserted, the two Yoyos that MetalMan was currently yielding glowed.

The right one glowed blue; the left one glowed green. The two glowing Yoyos then started to close in on each other, and merged together into one big Yoyo with a red glow.

"GREAT-YOYO!" MetalMan and Tamako both shouted. MetalMan shot the Yoyo out of the two arms that were carrying it, towards the retreating Beat. The big yoyo, like KnightMan's spiked ball, was still attached to MetalMan by a string. The big red yoyo suddenly split into three smaller ones, which went a lot faster and covered much more distance than a regular yoyo chip.

One of the yoyo's strings tangled up around the small Beat, while the other two wrapped itself around the crate. MetalMan pulled both the bird and the crate in, with the crate landing on the ship and the bird landing on the ground in front of MetalMan.

"Hasta la vista," MetalMan grinned, and his right fist grew to twice its original size, and the bird gave one more annoying squawk before being pounded by MetalMan's fist, sent through the ground, and being deleted.

"Meh," MetalMan sighed, staring at the deep hole in the ground that he made. "I'm not paying for that," and he walked away from the hole, towards the resting JunkMan and MetalMan. "Great job, team."

Around this time, Eska awakened, and started to look around, confused. "What happened?" he asked no one in particular, and that's when he noticed that there was a hole in the ground. "That's a pretty deep hole. How did it get there? . . . HOLY F-"

"AHH!!"

* * *

MetalMan, JunkMan, and KnightMan immediately turned their heads toward the screaming, and witnessed a weird-looking virus with a skull for a head, sticking out of the hole MetalMan created. Eska's legs were hanging out of the skull's mouth, and was quickly slurped in and swallowed.

The "virus's" body was completely made out of plants. There were vines and bamboo and leaves and daisies and seaweed. The body was mostly made out of vines, however. In the middle of the plant party, was the skull of the virus, which was covered with dirt.

Even without eyes, the virus seemed to be able to see perfectly, because it was looking straight ahead at the three Navis. In the forehead part of the skull, was a small hole in which small worms, maggots, and caterpillars were crawling in and out of.

The virus hissed, and a snake-like tongue slithered out of its mouth quickly, and back in. "Not a bad appetizzzzer, but now it'sssss time for the main courssssse."

"What is that virus?" KnightMan asked, readying himself into a battle position.

The plant thing started to laugh hysterically. "I'm not a virusssss . . . and I am called the DI_**VINE**_!" (AN: We will be calling him Vine)

JunkMan roared. "I _hate_ stupid puns!" JunkMan, operator-less, dug into his own memory bank and selected his own chip data: HeatSide. "HEATSIDE!" JunkMan's pincer hands transformed into a gun, which shot out a swift fireball at the DiVine.

"Too easssy!" Vine cackled, easily dodging the fireball as it used its plant body to leap out of the hole and slither across the ground. "Now, VINE SSSLASSSH!" A sharp vine shot out of its body swiftly, towards MetalMan. It was too fast. MetalMan couldn't evade it.

But that's where KnightMan comes in. "IRON BODY!" He immediately jumped in front of MetalMan and activated his Iron Body. KnightMan's steel body suddenly turned gray and immobile, but denser and tougher, and the sharp vine simply bounced off of the titanium-like KnightMan.

"Thanks, KnightMan," MetalMan said.

KnightMan replied with a simple no problem.

Vine cackled again. "Iron Body: A very powerful defensssse that can block every type of attack excccccept one. And that one issss: A Breaking elemental attack." Vine slithered across the ground with tremendous speed, and his mouth opened out and his snake-like tongue stuck out. The tongue morphed into a pinky-sized drill.

"MOUTH DRILL!" it shouted, and the drill started to make its 'whir' sounds as it poked a hole into MetalMan's chest, right about his icon, which was the crucial point of any Navi. He fell to his knees, holding the hole in his chest.

"KnightMan!" JunkMan, MetalMan, and Princess Pride all screamed.

"I'm okay . . . " he mumbled, and got back on his feet. Then fell again. This time, he landed flat on his face, on the edge of fainting.

"Hang in there, KnightMan," MetalMan said, sticking his arm up in the sky. "Tamako! Give me a sword."

"Right!" she yelled, and inserted a sword that would give MetalMan an advantage: FireSword. "Battle Chip: FireSword, slot-in!"

MetalMan's arm—the one facing upwards in the air—glowed white, and transformed into a wide, red-orange blade that had streams of smoke sizzling out of the guard.

"Magnetic Metal!" The tall Navi stuck his arms out, and he rose up a foot off the ground. "Ah, it feels so good to be able to be in my floating position again." MetalMan smirked, and dashed off towards the plant, and slashed.

Vine roared in pain, and MetalMan smirked, thinking that he had just won the battle. It was far from over, as Vine gave a smirk himself.

"Jusssst . . . kidding!" Vine's entire solid body blew up, and water flew off everywhere, including MetalMan's face.

"What the hell is this?" he cried out, and his body suddenly turned stiff. The water that hit his body caused the rusting to take place quicker. "Damn it," he cursed, and the water that was all spread about over the CyberDocks started to gather up in one place, and reformed the plant form of Vine.

"Haha, nicccce try, but I'm a DoubleElement (AN: Again . . . will explain in later chapters)," it hissed, and his body full of vegetation turned into water again. It leapt towards the vulnerable MetalMan, but quickly stopped as it saw from the corner of its watery eye, that JunkMan was charging at it with an ElecSword.

"Another nicccce try!" Vine hissed, and a gigantic leaf appeared in front of it. "Leaf ssshield!" Although the leaf looked weak, it completely stopped the ElecSword that JunkMan used. "Now I got you!" Vine opened his mouth wide and took a bite at JunkMan.

JunkMan tried to leap away, but his right arm was caught, and it broke apart from his body. "DAMN IT!!" he yelled, and screamed in pain, while Vine enjoyed his meal. "What kind of damn virus is this?"

"Didn't I sssay? I'm not a virusssss."

"Then what the hell are you?"

"What good will it do for you? You're about to be eaten."

"Good point. But remember that eating my arm won't do any good for _you_. Because you're about to be deleted! JUNK PRESS!" His right arm grew back almost instantly, and along with his left arm, it shot forward and slammed itself against Vine's "body", which was sent flying away.

And just like MetalMan, JunkMan thought he got Vine.

He didn't.

The living jungle reappeared behind JunkMan, and stroke him with one of his vines on the back of his neck. JunkMan fell down onto the ground, and his yellow eyes shut, and he fell unconscious.

"I sssssee . . ." Vine hissed. "You're a Zzzombie Navi, an invulnerable Navi." Vine moved closer to JunkMan. "However, even the invulnerable onessss have a weak point. And that'ssss lack of knowledge. You didn't know that I'm able to teleport to the UnderNet in the blink of an eye, and back. Ssso you didn't sssssee it coming.

"Now prepare to get eaten!" Vine opened his mouth wide and picked up JunkMan using vines. He placed JunkMan in his mouth, and swallowed him whole. "Tastes as good as it should be!" Vine smirked, and moved onto the rusted MetalMan.

Vine did the same thing to MetalMan as he did to JunkMan: Slash him across the back of his neck, and swallow him whole.

"METALMAN!!" Tamako screamed at the top of her lungs. She dropped her PET, and fell down onto the ground. Her most valuable friend has just been _eaten_.

Then Vine turned to look at KnightMan.

"No . . ." Princess Pride said quietly, on the verge of tears. "Don't eat KnightMan. Please! I beg of you!"

The DiVine did the exact opposite of her commands, and KnightMan sank down into Vine's bottomless belly. Vine gave a loud hiss of triumph, and leapt into the hole created by MetalMan.

* * *

About one year ago . . .

It was bright and sunny outdoors at Cyber City. Not even the thick, wooden blinds could stop the sunlight from shining in onto the sleeping Lan's face. His eyelids started to 'shudder' as if they were thinking they were human.

The eyelids opened up, revealing a pair of dreamy brown eyes. The eyelids quickly shut as it absorbed the blinding sunlight, but quickly opened up again to check the time: Five o' clock sharp.

* * *

K, first chapter. If you're still reading this...I just want you to know that this is a PROLOGUE and takes place in the FUTURE. Chapter 1 is one year before the prologue. Oh, and the last part of this chapter was rushed . . .

Review please. I want to know what people think of my first MegaMan story :)


	2. Return of the Darkness

I don't think I have anything to say here, except a reminder that this chapter is one year ago from the prologue. All of my after notes will be at the end. This chapter actually has no point except to introduce an ally. Oh, and the setting is Central Town, for anyone that doesn't know.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

_MMBN10: Vine and Storm_

Return of the Darkness

* * *

"MegaMan?" Lan called, as he took his eyes away from his digital clock and looked up at the ceiling. There was no reply.

"MegaMan?" he called again.

MegaMan looked up from inside his blue PET, and then at the clock. "Yes, Lan?" He raised an eyebrow after taking a glance at the clock. "It's 5 AM. That's really weird for _you_ to be waking _me_ up."

"Oh, really?" Lan sounded like he was tired and didn't care. He had a depressed tone in his voice. "Why did I wake up so early today? I feel horrible." Lan rubbed his stomach, and closed his eyes.

"Don't you usually get like this when you're excited?" MegaMan asked, checking Lan's calendar. "Oh, yeah . . . isn't today your live interview?"

"Oh yeah!" he shouted, rising up from his laying-down position. "And we're also supposed to demonstrate our virus busting techniques."

"Yeah, you're right. If that's so, get out of bed and let's warm up. We don't want to be too rusty during our live battle this afternoon."

"But it's five A.M!" Lan complained, and fell back on his bed again. "Let me sleep until eight or something."

"Lans will be Lans . . ." MegaMan sighed to himself, and he went back to 'sleep' as well.

* * *

About 8:30 A.M.

"Okay, MegaMan, I'm up and ready," Lan grinned, fully dressed. "Jack in, MegaMan! Execute!" Lan held out his PET to his monitor, and a beam of light shot out. MegaMan was no longer in the PET, but instead in the cyber world, but more specifically, in Lan's homepage.

"Hey, Lan!" MegaMan called to his operator.

"Yeah?"

"That was really good timing! Here come viruses!" MegaMan slipped his mouth guard on, and put all of his attention on the ten Mettaur viruses 'hopping' his way. The Mettaurs were equipped with a yellow hard hat, also bearing the design of a green cross on it. "Get ready, Lan."

"All right. Let's use the chips that were given to us after our PET upgrade. After all, it's more impressive to use crappy chips instead of real fancy ones. So, let's just get in the mood." Lan clipped his new chip case onto his waist, and spoke his signature line: "Battle routine, set!"

"Execute!" MegaMan followed.

"Okay, let's see . . ." Lan mumbled, reaching into his chip case. "WHAT? These chips really do suck!"

"Bear with them for now! Just send me one!" MegaMan cried out, dodging the shockwaves coming at him when the Mettaurs swung their pickaxes down.

"Okay, umm . . ." Lan drew two battle chips from his case, and held one of them in his right hand, between the tip of his index and middle finger. The other chip was being held in his palm. He inserted the first chip into the PET, and did the same with his other chip. "Battle chip: Cannon, Double slot-in!"

MegaMan's left hand morphed into an 8 inch long, wide, and high green gun. His right hand did the same thing. "Double cannons!" Two jar-sized blue energy bullets shot out of each cannon. Three of them hit and caused deletion to the Mettaurs. The fourth bullet completely missed.

"Lan, I need more chips."

"Give me a second. Do you think you can hold off with your MegaBuster for now?"

"What? What are you doing?" MegaMan looked up from his operator's HP, to see that Lan was in deep thought . . . but not that deep.

"I'm trying to figure out if I can score a chip combo with these cruddy chips."

"A combo?" MegaMan asked.

"Yeah, it won't be all that impressive unless we do a really good one. Umm . . . Okay I have one! Simple yet effective!" Lan looked at the four chips that were resting on his hand. He picked up two of them, which were different types, and simply put back the other two back into his case.

As MegaMan deleted one more Mettaur using his buster, Lan inserted the two chips. "Battle chip: Area Steal, slot-in! WideSword, slot-in!"

In the cyber world, MegaMan disappeared, and reappeared behind the Mettaurs. "Area Steal and— WIDESWORD!" MegaMan's right hand morphed into a big, white blade, which was swung down and deleted two of the Mettaurs.

"We're doing great, MegaMan!" Lan grinned.

MegaMan's mouth guard disappeared, as he took a breath of the virtual air. He then turned his attention back to the remaining four Mettaurs, who were running . . . or hopping . . . away as fast as they could.

"MegaMan, don't let them run away! Battle chip: Sword, slot-in!" The brown haired operator swiftly slid a chip into the blue PET. The blue Navi's WideSword—which was almost out of energy—shrunk in size, turning into a regular Sword.

MegaMan sprinted as fast as he could towards the Mettaurs, holding up his virtual sword. As soon as he caught up to the viruses, he swung down.

The sword shattered as two pink Mettaurs—aka Mettaur2—suddenly popped out of nowhere and stopped the sword with their hard hats.

"Wha—"MegaMan said softly. As the sword broke, the two Mettaur2s slid back a few inches, while MegaMan, being the negative side of the collision, flew back about two meters. He landed on two feet and one hand, with the other hand being a broken Sword.

"Gah . . ." he grunted, dropping (AN: When I mean dropping, I mean he lost the sword, or he took it away, etc.) the broken sword.

The group of Mettaurs and Mettaur2s lifted their pickaxes up, and then swung down until the tip of their pickaxes hit the ground. A gigantic white shockwave formed, and sped towards MegaMan going faster than a football in the air.

The shockwave struck MegaMan directly, sending him back about twenty feet. He was screaming in pain the whole time, and gave a loud grunt when he hit the ground.

"MegaMan!" Lan shouted. As Lan observed the viruses lifting up their pickaxes for another shockwave attack, his face turned serious. "GET UP!! THEY'RE GOING TO LAUNCH ANOTHER ATTACK!"

The blue Navi rested on the ground for a few more seconds, but got up and leapt away in time to avoid the incoming shockwave.

"They're really . . . strong," MegaMan panted heavily, sinking down to one knee. "I'm feeling really . . . weak now."

"MegaMan! Hang in there for a while!" Lan cursed under his breath, staring at the one chip left, looking for signs hope. "Damn it. Only one chip left . . ."

"Lan . . . maybe we can use _that_ . . ." MegaMan suggested.

"_That? _Remind me how to use _that,_ again."

"Well, we haven't done _that_ in a while . . . but if we can synchronize our heartbeats, our breathing, and our thoughts . . ."

"Okay, we have to give it a go." Lan and MegaMan both closed their eyes, while the Mettaurs lifted their pickaxe once again . . .

"Follow my lead," MegaMan commanded, taking a deep breath. He straightened his legs and put them side-by-side, touching each other. He stretched out his arms, bringing his body into a 'T' shape.

Lan, without having to open his eyes, did the same. He took a deep breath, and positioned his body into a 'T.'

And they were both thinking the same things: _'We can do this . . .'_

The two of them both opened their eyes, and the wind in the cyber world started to rush and twirl around MegaMan. Lan's PET screen started to glow a deep blue.

"_**FULL SYNCHRO!"**_

MegaMan felt himself grow stronger, and Lan was shaking because of the intenseness their Navi-Human synchronization is giving off.

The Mettaurs' pickaxes hit the ground, delivering another speedy shockwave.

MegaMan didn't try to avoid it. He simply put his hand out, and the shockwave never touched him. Instead, the wave split in half, and broke apart right before hitting MegaMan, passing him.

Lan threw up his last chip into the air, then caught it with his right hand and slotted it in. "Battle chip: AirShot, SLOT-IN!"

The hand that MegaMan had out morphed into a cylinder shaped gun with an opening. MegaMan let out a cry, and yelled out: "AIRSHOT!!"

Usually, only a small gust of wind would've shot out. But adding one Full Synchro to the potion . . . and it causes an entire hurricane.

The blast was so fast, that the Mettaur2s couldn't hide behind their hard hats in time to block it. All six of the Mettaurs all exploded and were deleted.

"Yeah! We did awesome!" Lan exclaimed. "Talk about a huge warm-up!" Lan fell down on his butt and chuckled to himself, and MegaMan did the same. After all, he liked the feeling of being synchronized with his best friend.

"Lan! Are you awake?" shouted a feminine voice.

"Yeah!" Lan replied.

"Okay, it's time for breakfast!"

"Yes, mom!"

* * *

"Jack in, MegaMan! Execute!"

MegaMan landed on Lan's HP for the second time today, and ran up towards the warp point that led to the ACDC HP. His interview was taking place in the ACDC area, and he was living in Central Town, meaning he had to take the shortcut.

"Okay, we're ready for this interview. After those delicious sausages for breakfast, I don't think it's possible for us to show just plain virus busting!" Lan licked his lips.

"Right!" MegaMan agreed. Just before stepping onto the ACDC HP warp point, he noticed something shiny laying near the warp point to Central Area 1. "Lan, I see something."

"What? What is it?"

"Let me check." MegaMan ran up to the shiny object, and picked it up. "W-wow!" he stuttered, staring at the two items with amazement.

"What? What is it? Spit it out, MegaMan!" Lan demanded with eagerness and anxiousness.

"Battle chips . . ."

"Really!?" Lan slammed his two hands on the desk. "What kind? Hurry up and tell me!!"

"Battle chip: Reflector2 and Tornado," MegaMan smiled because of the uncommon chips, and sent the battle chips over to Lan in the real world.

The two chips slid out of the blue PET. Lan gave a huge smirk as he held the two chips in his palm. "Where did these come from?"

"I guess the Reflector came from the remaining data of the Mettaur2s . . . and the Tornado came from the remaining data of our buffed up AirShot explosion."

"Wow, I can't wait to try these out!" Lan started shaking. "Man, I'm going to explode!"

"Wait until we get there!"

"Right," Lan sighed out all of his excitement, and placed his two new chips into his case. "So, our destination is the ACDC 1 Virus Projector! Let's move!"

"Roger!" MegaMan said, and stepped into the ACDC warp point, and he arrived at the ACDC HP.

"So how much time do we have left?" Lan asked, crossing his arms.

"A little bit more than 45 minutes."

"Bah, that's plenty of time! Let's check out the market and see what we can buy!"

"But, Lan . . . it's always a good idea to be early for an interview. If you're on time . . . you're basically considered late."

"MegaMan, this interview is _scheduled_. Live. I can't be early; otherwise people might miss the program when it shows."

"Yeah, you're right. Okay, we'll take a quick stroll around the market," MegaMan ran past the warp point to ACDC 1, and instead to the ACDC marketplace. "Man, this place is packed. So, what do you want to get?"

"Well . . . " Lan checked the amount of money stored inside his PET. "I think we only have enough money to buy two or three chips.

"Roger that!" MegaMan ran to the nearest chip store: Long's Chips. The net dealer greeted him as he walked in. He looked around, searching for good but cheap chips behind the glass walls. "Lan, there's a really good chip here. It's called StoneFish2. Wanna buy it?"

"How much is it?" Lan asked.

"About . . . holy . . ." MegaMan's mouth dropped open as he looked at the price.

"What? What's so holy?"

"Nothing. It's 30,000 zennies."

"WHAT!? That's half a year's allowance. No way, MegaMan. Can you find another chip?"

"Sure." MegaMan looked around, but didn't see any battle chip that seemed even remotely interesting. But then, at the corner of one of the shelves, he spotted a chip with the design of a lime green puppet charged on the chip. "That looks cool."

The net dealer, which was a green NormalNavi, caught MegaMan staring at that chip. "Excuse me, sir," the green Navi said politely. "May I interest you in that chip?"

"Yes, please. What is that chip?"

"It's known as Woody Powder. With this chip, spores can be sent out that sprouts grasses. Rumors also say that your enemies will be in a state of confusion if they inhale any of those spores."

"Hmm . . . that seems useful. What do you say, Lan?"

"Mind telling me how much it costs?"

"Right, umm . . . 8900 Z."

"Yeah, I can afford that. We'll take it," Lan said, transporting the money to MegaMan.

"Excellent," the green net dealer commented, "I'll just add this to your shopping cart. Need anything else?"

"Maybe we can afford one more chip," Lan thought out loud. "Do you have any sword-like chips?"

"Oh, yes!" The NormalNavi opened up one of the glass shelves in the side, and took out a blue box. He set the blue box on the counter, and opened it up. There, neatly stacked, were hundreds of high powered chips.

MegaMan took a peek inside the box, and saw a chip that caught his interest. "Fire . . . Sword."

"Hmm? Oh, yes, this chip. Very, very powerful. Very powerful in deed. It's the second strongest Elemental sword(AN: Yeah . . . I mean sword . . . not blade) in the . . . history of Elemental swords.

"However, the reason why this is so highly valued is because most people couldn't last a few seconds after being struck by such a hot sword.

"Even though the AquaSword is stronger, many famous netbattlers recommend using FireSword. It's 11200Z, by the way."

"Hmm . . ." Lan was thinking: He had 12500 Z left, and he had hidden about 7000 Z somewhere in his PET. Should he afford it? Or not?

"Okay, we'll take it!" Lan stated, passing the electric money to MegaMan.

MegaMan paid the net dealer the total amount of 21400 Z, and took his two items: Woody Powder and FireSword.

"Lan, this is great! I think you made the right decision by buying these chips." As MegaMan was about to walk away, the net dealer called him back.

"Wait! You just bought the 10,000th item bought in this store since it opened a year ago!"

MegaMan turned around, and walked back. "Is that good?" he asked.

"Yes, because now you get to choose one free chip! And it can be _any _chip!"

"Really??" Lan shouted. "MegaMan, what do you think we should get, then?"

"How about that . . . StoneFish2 chip?" MegaMan asked, looking curiously at the net dealer.

"It's yours!" the green Navi declared, throwing the desired chip towards MegaMan.

MegaMan thanked him, and then walked away.

"Okay, Lan," MegaMan said. "We should get there. We have 40 more minutes."

"Fine!" Lan obeyed, "Where are we supposed to go anyway?"

"Umm . . . I don't know."

_BEEP . . . BEEP . . . BEEP_

"Lan, you have mail!" MegaMan stated.

Lan opened up his email, revealing a new message. "Hey look! It's from the reporters! They have good timing! I'll read it:

"_Dear Mr. Hikari and MegaMan.EXE,_

_We are sorry for forgetting to tell you where you are supposed to go for the interview. Meet us past the Crack Current next to this 'Dex's HP.' You can walk on the Crack Current using the boots attached to this message. Thank you,_

_-Kizi Ivan"_

Lan examined the blue boots attached to the message. It seemed very weak. "Can these things really help us walk on the Crack Current? I heard that only Crack elemental Navis with very sturdy feet can walk on those."

"We just have to trust them, Lan," MegaMan stated. "They said that the Crack Current was near Dex's HP?"

"Yeah, they did. Maybe we could go visit Dex before we start the interview?"

"That's what I was thinking."

"But, didn't you want to be early?"

" . . . I figured you were right for once." MegaMan started to walk up the ACDC 1 main road, but got off and went ahead to walk on a side path that led to Dex's HP. "Hopefully GutsMan's home. Hey look, there's the Crack Current!"

MegaMan stopped walking near Dex' Security Cube, and went to take a look at the Crack Current.

The Crack Current was just like the Mettaur's shockwaves, except the current was on air, and connected two pieces of cyber land together.

"Can you really walk on that?" Lan asked.

"I don't know," MegaMan said, walking up towards the current. As soon as he got about 5 feet close, he backed off. "Ah . . . it gives off an intense feeling if you're too close. Well, I'm going to Dex's HP now."

Lan nodded, and MegaMan opened up the security cube with his code. He stepped on the warp, transporting himself to Dex's HP.

"Hey, MegaMan . . . guts!"

MegaMan looked around. He saw GutsMan on a different platform, lifting up weights. "Hey, GutsMan!"

GutsMan stopped exercising his already oversized 'guns,' and hurriedly ran up to MegaMan. "So, what's up, guts?"

"Nothing much. Just coming to visit. I can't stay for long though."

"Hey, Lan!" Dex's image appeared on Lan's PET screen.

"Hey . . . Dex!" Lan replied. "How's it going?"

"It's fine. GutsMan and I were just exercising. Hey, want to have a net battle?"

"Umm . . . sure," Lan answered, seeing that he can't really lose much. "I guess we have time for that."

"Follow me, guts!" GutsMan exclaimed with a cheery voice, and walked away. MegaMan followed him, and they arrived at a spacious spot for net battles.

"Let's get started! Battle routine, set!" Lan said.

"Execute!" MegaMan replied, and waited for Lan to start his operating.

"GutsMan, we'll do the first move!" Dex declared. He held up a chip, and slotted it in. "Battle chip: SilverFist, slot-in!

GutsMan's iron fist grew bigger, and gained a silver-ish color. "GUTS! IRON FIST!" GutsMan sprinted up to MegaMan, who simply waited for GutsMan to get close enough, and . . .

"Battle chip: WideSword, slot-in!"

GutsMan lifted his arm back, and then forward, towards MegaMan, whose right hand quickly changed into a big sword, which he used to block the incoming fist, and knock it away.

MegaMan slid back a few inches, while GutsMan literally tumbled over, and fell on his fat ass.

"Perfect chance!" Lan grinned, "Battle chip: Cannon, slot-in!" MegaMan took a split second to aim, and fired two shots that both hit GutsMan directly and caused a small explosion. Smoke flew out everywhere.

GutsMan quickly rolled out of the smoke, and called out to Dex to use their signature 'Guts Hurling Formation.'

"You got it, GutsMan," Dex said in his manly voice, reaching for five chips. "Battle chips: Mini Bomb, Cannonball, Prankball, Quake1, and BlackBomb! Slot-in!!"

In the cyber world, two small balls appeared in GutsMan's two hands. One of the balls were blue, bearing a thin plastic outer layer. The other ball was pure, heavy metal. He threw them both, with MegaMan dodging the metal ball, but being hit by the blue ball.

He slid back a few inches, covering his face with his arms. Then GutsMan threw a huge ball that landed in front of MegaMan. The ball soon exploded, and smoke and confetti started pouring it.

MegaMan started coughing due to the smoke, but stopped in time to see a huge, metal virus in front of him. He managed to dodge the direct hit, but rubble started flying out everywhere when the Quake hit the ground.

As the dust cleared, MegaMan tried to get up, but failed due to large pieces of cyber stone were piled up on his legs.

"Ah! Lan!" he called. "I can't move!"

"I know! I'm looking for an Area Steal chip!" Lan said back, grabbing two chips from his case. "Air Shot and Sword. Crap!"

That's when a huge black sphere landed in front of MegaMan, causing a loud thud.

"Crap, that's BlackBomb!" MegaMan bit his bottom lips, bracing for the explosion that was about to come.

"Haha! We've won this!" Dex smirked, inserting another battle chip. "Battle chip: HeatShot, slot-in!!"

GutsMan equipped himself with a small gun. The gun started to shine a bright orange color, signaling the firing.

"LAN!!" MegaMan called again.

"Gah, no time to search for Area Steal. Battle chip: AirShot, slot-in!" MegaMan's hand morphed into a cylindrical gun, which had 5 times faster firing rate than the HeatShot gun. MegaMan immediately shoot out a tiny wind bullet from his gun at the BlackBomb, which flew off with great speed towards GutsMan's direction.

"GUTS!!" the buff Navi yelled, quickly releasing a HeatShot fireball. The HeatShot connected with the BlackBomb almost immediately after, and the black sphere exploded.

Smoke and flames started flying out everywhere. Whose side did it explode on? The answer is: The steel example of overweightness.

"Good battle, Lan," Dex said. "I thought for sure I had you there. Nice strategy you pulled off at the end."

"Haha . . . thanks," Lan gave a weak smile.

"That is . . . if that strategy was intentional," MegaMan said softly.

"Quiet, Hub!"

Later, after passing through the Crack Current . . .

MegaMan slipped his damaged boots off. "Well, we can walk on the current . . . it's just that the boots take one hell of a beating," he commented.

* * *

At the interview . . .

"Well, that's all the questions for now!" Kizi, the pink NormalNavi reporter said. "Now would you please show off your net battling skills!"

"Uh . . . haha . . . sure," MegaMan stuttered, taking one glance at the camera, then looked away, with a red face.

"You suck at handling publicity," Lan commented.

"Oh, shut up," MegaMan said with a flat expression.

"Are you ready?" said the other reporter, a green NormalNavi. He then stomped the ground, and a big circle appeared on the ground. He placed his hand on the circle, and bunches of viruses started popping out of nowhere.

MegaMan equipped his mouth guard, and readied his buster.

"Battle routine, set!" the green Navi said.

"Execute!"

The viruses were all random. There were regular Mettaur viruses, Fishy viruses, and a weird Swordfish thing. There were Pyre viruses (AN: I think that's what they are called . . . those viruses for flameline.), Cragger viruses, and this weird robot with batteries for limbs.

"What's this?" Kizi spoke into her microphone. "These viruses seem really powerful! This is very unusual, since the usual amount of viruses developed would only be 3 or 4! There's at least 30 viruses here!"

"She's right, Lan!" MegaMan commented.

"Right, MegaMan. But we're still gonna do this!"

MegaMan nodded, and he stuck out his arm. Lan gave MegaMan a WideSword, and he dashed into the virus crowd, swinging his WideSword around with careful aim.

"Impressive! With every slash he has yet to miss one virus!" Kizi stated.

Soon, most of the viruses were deleted, except for the Swordfish and the two Craggers.

"Lan, I need a new chip. This WideSword is already out of energy," MegaMan said.

"Then let's see what this baby can do!" Lan took out another chip. "Battle chip: StoneFish2, slot-in!"

MegaMan's two hands clapped together, and they merged together, forming into a fish with rocky scales.

"What's this? MegaMan and Lan Hikari just used a chip some of us has never heard of?" Kizi shouted.

MegaMan, having the stone fish for his hands, charged at the two Craggers. He stabbed the fish into one of the Craggers, creating a gigantic hole. He pulled the fish out, and the Cragger was deleted.

He moved onto the other Cragger. The rocky fish, on its own will, opened its mouth and shot a blast of green slime out of its mouth. The second Cragger immediately deleted.

"This chip is very powerful," MegaMan said in awe.

"MegaMan! Behind you!" Lan shouted. The blue Navi ducked, barely evading the Swordfish's dash attack . . . or swim attack. MegaMan got into a handstand position, and pushed himself off the ground with it. He aimed his buster at the swordfish, holding back 3 seconds of energy.

"Charged Shot!!" he released the buster, and a large blast of plasma fired out and hit the swordfish, causing a gigantic explosion that caused MegaMan to lose his air balance and fall on his back.

"GREAT JOB, MEGAMAN!"

"AMAZING!" Kizi yelled into her microphone, speaking to the camera. "He beat that whole swarm of viruses, using just two chips! And I know all of you saw that weird chip he used. Excuse me, Mr. MegaMan! Please tell us, meaning the watchers as well, where and how did you get the chip?"

"Well, I've bought the chip, at the ACDC marketplace. It was at this place called 'Long's Chips.'" MegaMan smiled at the camera. "To get the best of chips, visit Higsby's and Long's Chips!" _'I had no idea why I just said that . . .'_

"Well, there you have it, everyone! Please visit our website for MegaMan wallpaper, screensavers, and even MegaMan underwear! Visit double yoo double yoo double yoo dot Mega with Kizi dot com. And that concludes it!"

* * *

After everyone left . . .

MegaMan looked off into the distance, staring at the upper platforms.

"Is something wrong, MegaMan?" Lan asked.

"Yeah. The viruses were really tough. My arms are sore because I had to swing the WideSword really hard. Someone's been watching us and manipulating the viruses."

"Who?"

"It's that guy up there."

Lan looked to where MegaMan was looking. There was indeed someone there. And that Navi was flashing yellow.

"What's he doing?" MegaMan asked, loading his buster for a charged shot. MegaMan could see, that the yellow flashes turned into one huge electric ball. "He's attacking! COUNTER!" MegaMan fired a fully charged Mega Buster, striking the electrical Navi directly in his icon.

"Damn it," the Navi cursed softly, stopping his electrical attack and holding onto his chest, where his icon was.

MegaMan appeared right in front of the injured Navi, wielding a sword, with the affects of Area Steal.

"Who are you?" MegaMan asked.

"Heh," the Navi smirked. "LIKE HELL I'M GOING TO TELL YOU!" The Navi was just like ElecMan, except what was supposed to be black was blue. He had two large satellite dishes on his back, and he had a long face with a pointed chin. "BATTLE CHIP: STATICFIST!"

The Navi's hands started sparking with blue electricity. He threw a punch at MegaMan who easily dodged.

"Let's go, Lan! _**FULL SYNCHRO!**_" Due to MegaMan's counter attack(AN: See a few paragraphs above), a power inside his chest has been awakened. Now, with Lan, he brought the power out.

The electric Navi screamed as MegaMan entered Full Synchro. Being at the condition he was, he couldn't take the intense force that MegaMan's close distance was giving out. The Navi fell onto the ground, and his digital figure started breaking apart.

And he was deleted.

"Sorry, Lan. I really didn't want to delete him," MegaMan apologized.

"It's ok. It's our job to delete any Net Terrorists. Besides, we knew this would happen when we took the job."

"ShockMan," MegaMan said.

"What?"

"ShockMan. The name of that Navi." MegaMan analyzed the digital remains of the Navi: his icon. The icon was a yellowish white color, with a hint of black in it. A lightning bolt ran through it. And next to the icon lying on the ground, were strings, and a battle chip.

"Lan, we've seen this battle chip before, haven't we?"

"Yeah," Lan said, his heart beating heavily."It's the . . . oh, I can't bear to say it."

"So Nebula's back," MegaMan stomped on the chip as hard as he could, until it broke into pieces, and he completely obliterated it with his buster. "And what are these strings?"

"Who knows? We've just got to watch our back for Nebula."

Yeah, the end was rushed again.

Oh, just so you guys didn't pick it up, I based the warm up matches on the BN4-6 Virus Busting training.

Such as using the two cannons (alike chip selections), the WideSword and Area Steal(alike chip code selection and combos), and the Full Synchro(counter and emotion).

* * *

I doubt anyone was stupid enough to not pick that up..

Review! :D


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